Kingstree highway markers to honor Tisdale

Kingstree has decided to erect six highway markers proclaiming the town as the “Home of Dr. Henry N. Tisdale, The Eighth President of Claflin University.”

An unveiling ceremony for the markers will be 5 p.m. Wednesday at U.S. 52 North, Williamsburg County Highway, across from the Food Lion shopping center.

Tisdale was appointed the eighth president of Claflin in June 1994 and has led Claflin’s resurgence to prominence among the nation’s premier institutions of higher education, according to a press release from the university. He has received many accolades and awards throughout his tenure, most recently the Milliken Medal of Quality Award and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education District III Chief Executive Leadership Award.

Tisdale attended Tomlinson High School and graduated as valedictorian from St. Mark High School in Kingstree. He is a 1965 magna cum laude graduate of Claflin University, earning a Bachelor of Science in mathematics. At Temple University, he was awarded a Master of Education in Mathematics (1967) and then a Master of Arts in Mathematics from Dartmouth College (1975).
This was followed by a Doctor of Philosophy in mathematics from Dartmouth College (1978). Tisdale was the first black to receive a Ph.D. in mathematics from Dartmouth.